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“Lola’s Theme” by the Shapeshifters is one of my all-time favorite house tracks. It’s one of the first records that got me into house music, back in 2004. I wanted to make a remix and bring it up-to-date for 2014. When I usually start a remix, I try to find (read: Google) the acapella or instrumental of the original song. In my quest, I discovered that neither the vocal nor the instrumental parts of “Lola’s Theme” were original! So I went straight to the source. The vocal was lifted and pieced together from Anthony White’s “Love Me Tonight” (1994), and the instrumental was taken straight from Johnnie Taylor’s “What About My Love” (1981). Interestingly, in order to avoid paying copyright royalties, the Shapeshifters hired Mark Summers and Scorccio Sample Replays to recreate the “What About My Love” sample from scratch. I didn’t have access to that re-creation (or those studio musicians!), so I found the original Johnnie Taylor record, along with Anthony White’s, and brought them into Ableton Live… here is the result!

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